Madera Community College students get incentives to get COVID-19 vaccine
René García, a student in the Madera Community College’s Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) program, had enough reasons to get his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday morning (Aug. 10).
One of those reasons was $150 gift card offered by the community college to its students who got the vaccine during the on-campus vaccination clinic being held on the second day of school.
Students were coming back for in-person learning this semester at the community college after spending the previous months doing distant learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So obviously we believe in the vaccine, and we want to make sure that we keep our students, but more importantly our community safe. And this is a great way to do that,” said Madera Community College President Ángel Reyna. “And by offering it today knowing that students would be coming in, going to the bookstore, we wanted to put it in a convenient location for them.”
“And we also wanted incentivize it for them,” added Reyna. “And we are offering $150 – Amazon or Walmart gift card. In addition, the county is also offering $25 for them to get vaccinated and if you refer a friend, $25 each.”
García, 38, said getting the vaccine was “a little bit because of the incentive” as well as because it was also a requirement to complete a course in the vocational nursing program.
“So, I have two incentives, one was financial and the other one completely educational,” said García, who received the Pfizer vaccine. “I thought it was a good time and enough reasons for me to go ahead and complete that task.”
García is scheduled to come back on Aug. 31 for his second shot.
Like García, student Liliana Morales took the opportunity to get vaccinated while she was on campus.
“Either way, I feel like in a few years it’s going to be mandatory anyway, so might as well get it,” said Morales, 17 who is attending her first semester as college student. Morales added the incentive from the college to get the vaccine was a good bonus.
Michele Corbett, director of marketing for the community college, said the college partnered with Madera County Department of Public Health to administer the COVID-19 vaccines.
Corbett said the college will be hosting another vaccination clinic on Aug 18 form 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and would be offering the two-dose vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) and the one-dose vaccine (Johnson & Johnson).
“The community is welcome to come out and get vaccinated as well. Walk-ins are welcomed,” Corbett said, adding that while the $150 gift card incentive is only available to students enrolled at the community college, the community in general can received the county health department’s $25 incentive when they refer someone to get vaccinated and that person get the vaccine.
“So, we are really hoping that people would come out, everyone is welcome,” Corbett said, adding that as she talked to students walking around campus a lot of them were excited about the opportunity to get vaccinated.
“And $150 is a really nice incentive, every little counts when you are a college student and we wanted to make sure that students had that opportunity to have a little extra money, get vaccinated, protect themselves, protect their family. So, it’s a really good thing all around.”
The college and the county hopes to get at least 100 people vaccinated at each of the two vaccination clinics on campus.
According to the Madera County’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard, 44.2 percent of the county’s total eligible population is fully vaccinated; and, 52.1 percent has received one dose.
“We are looking to be part of the solution here at Madera Community College,” Reyna said.
For upcoming vaccination events in Madera County: www.maderacounty.com/covid19vaccine
Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 10 de agosto de 2021, 5:43 p. m..
